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How Much Does It Take to Build IOS
iOS App Development Cost: Everything You Need to Know to Build Your App
- Adam Romy
- March 20, 2025
Cost is the foremost consideration for businesses looking to develop an iOS app. iOS app development cost is especially important for startups and small businesses. They have a limited budget and can only spend an X amount from their budget on iOS or iPhone applications development.
Spending more than the allocated budget for iOS app development is not recommended as it can leave you with insufficient finances for other aspects of your business. Knowing the average iOS app development cost for the type of app you want can help you budget appropriately for your app. It will ensure that you get all the essential features of an iOS app without exceeding your budget.
So, what is the iPhone applications development cost for businesses in 2025? It ranges between $15k-200k in the U.S depending on the app features and complexity. However, you can reduce the cost of iOS app development significantly by outsourcing iPhone applications development to other regions where cost is lower.
However, if you’re looking for an estimate of how much it will cost you to develop an iOS app, then you can use this guide to come up with an accurate iPhone app development quote based on your requirements. Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
Cost Estimation Method For iOS App Development
Cost of iOS app development depends on the number of hours it takes to develop an app multiplied by the resource-allocated billable hours. The cost is calculated as follows:
| Hours spent on UI/UX design | Hours spent on platform-wise app development | Backend server hours | * | Hours rate of developers |
Also, when you breakdown each of these elements, you will find that there are several factors that contribute to the overall iPhone app development cost. These factors include the complexity level of iPhone applications development, the UI/UX design, the type of app, the location of your development team, amongst others. Let’s take a deeper look into these factors and how they affect your overall iOS app development cost.
How App Size Affects iOS Development Cost
A major determinant of iOS app cost is the app size. You can accurately estimate the cost of iOS app development by considering the app elements such as app complexity, features, and screens. You can accurately estimate iPhone app development cost by considering the size of the app you want.
A small-scale iOS app will cost you in the range of $10-50k with an ETA of 2 to 4 months. A medium-scale iOS app development will cost between $50-100k with an ETA of 4 to 8 months. A complex iPhone applications development will cost you over $100k and will take more than 8 months to complete.
So, what does each size of iOS app entail? A small-scale iOS app development price will include the cost of developing an iOS app with basic functions and a few screens. These are relatively simple apps without too much complexity. These apps are a good choice for startups and small businesses that want an app to validate their idea without spending too much on iOS app development.
Medium-scale iOS apps are a good choice for those looking for an iPhone app that offers more than just the basic functionalities and can integrate with external services and APIs. They are ideal for growing businesses looking for a feature-rich app that helps cater to different client/customer preferences without going overboard with the iOS app development budget.
Finally, large-scale iOS apps are feature-rich and complex iOS apps. They can integrate with several APIs and require extensive backend infrastructure. These iOS apps are ideal for established businesses that want to provide customers with the best user experience.
The Impact of Complexity on iOS Development Cost
How much does it cost to develop an iOS app? It is a question on the minds of many business owners today who want to scale their business with digital marketing. One of the biggest influences of iOS app development cost is the app complexity. What does a complex iOS app include? It includes many advanced features including augmented reality (AR) integration and real-time data processing.
iOS app can be broadly categorized into three types based on complexity. These include simple apps, mid-level apps and complex apps. Simple apps are iOS apps with basic features, standard user interface (UI) components, simple and predefined templates, and analytic components. Mid-level apps have a custom UI, are integrated with APIs, offer real-time messages and a simple backend. Finally, complex apps are iOS apps with real-time sync, custom animation, media processing, and a complex backend.
The cost of iPhone app development varies based on complexity and a major aspect of it is backend development. These are essentially two types of app development: BaaS and Custom. The latter provides you with a backend architecture from scratch, whereas the former provides you with backend architecture that is ready-made.
Another factor that determines the complexity of an iOS app is the admin panel. The core of an iOS app is making iPhone app with an admin panel that allows you to track app activities, view stats related to app activity, and update the content of the app whenever necessary.
Third-party app integration is another complexity factor that adds to the cost of an iOS app development. It is often a necessary expense as most iOS apps will require integration with other third-party apps to perform certain functions like signing up for a payment app or using social media platforms.
The in-app purchase feature for monetizing an iOS app is another thing that adds to the complexity and cost of iOS app development. The final feature that can make iPhone applications development complex and add to iOS app cost is the use of functions like Bluetooth, GPS, etc.
A Guide to iOS App Categories
There are many different types of iOS apps and the iOS app development cost depends on the category of app you want to develop. The different categories of iOS apps have their own security criteria, demographics and functionalities. Here is a list of the different iOS app categories in the Apple app store with their average development time:
App Category | Average Development Time |
Gaming app | 4-20 months |
Business app | 2-10 months |
Education app | 2-12 months |
Entertainment app | 3-15 months |
Travel app | 2-8 months |
Medical app | 2-6 months |
Shopping app | 3-8 months |
Health and fitness app | 1-15 months |
Social networking app | 5-8 months |
Designing An Engaging iOS App
The process of designing an engaging iOS app is a vital factor in estimating the iOS app development cost. The same app may have a different iOS app development price depending on the illustrations, animation, and design elements needed. It is pertinent to mention that having an engaging app is essential to increase your engagement and conversion rates with development services.
Also, you will need to take into account the following critical processes when determining the cost of iPhone app development.
App Wireframing Basics
Think of a wireframe as a blueprint or sketch that provides the development team with a visual guide of how the application will look and work. It doesn’t show the full functionality of the app but provides enough information in the form of interface elements and key screens. The development team and owner of the app can clarify and agree to the direction and scope of the entire project by using a wireframe.
The wireframe helps in creating the app features and user-experience map. A wireframe for a mobile app with a comprehensive visual presentation will feature placeholders, boxes, shapes, and gray lines.
A mobile app wireframe can be likened to a schematic diagram or architectural plan. It is equally vital in creating the final product as it provides essential design elements and the user-experience map designers need to begin the app development process. The use of tools like MARVEL, Balasmiq, and Photoshop are involved in creating a wireframe. As such, the cost of creating an engaging app wireframe is vital in determining the overall iOS app cost.
UI Design for Apps
How an app appears on a mobile device is referred to as a mobile user interface or mobile UI. It is what allows users to interact with the app elements on the screen including text fields, menu buttons, and everything in between.
The majority of these interactions are high-level as they involve the use of touch-based screens by users and these screens often have colourful displays. It makes it different from a desktop UI and the reason why the cost of developing a mobile UI is higher, especially in iPhone applications development.
Since most mobile app users are always on the move, it is important to allow easy access to the app features and functionality. It means that everything on the app screen needs to be simple, clear, and bold so that the user-experience is seamless.
Also, there is a slight difference in the UI design for Android and iOS apps. The preferred UI design for the former is material design to accomplish a creative and simple yet bold display. On the other hand, flat design is the go-to- UI design for iOS app as it helps developers to render depth and clarity.
Animation
Mobile apps today are a combination of aesthetics and function. Both are equally important and a vital part of aesthetics is animation as it increases the level of user interaction and engagement with the app. How does it accomplish that? It makes it easy for users to navigate the app with a simple swipe or tap. It is a vital part of the app onboarding process that allows users to understand how they can access and scroll through the app.
Besides making it easy for users to navigate the app, animation helps improve user-experience by providing visual feedback and cues. For example, users will know that an app is process their request when they see loading spinners or some sort of animation after pressing an action button.
In short, animations make an app user-friendly by allowing users to access complex information and functions in a simple way. It is the reason many gaming, restaurant, media and entertainment businesses use animations in their mobile applications.
The cost of designing an engaging iOS app is an important factor in the overall iOS app development cost. Another iOS app cost that is equally important is the development cost that factors in the size of the development team, and its placement. Let’s take a closer look at it.
Ideal Size for iOS App Development
As revealed in the beginning, the cost of iOS app development varies and can range anywhere between $15k-200k. A major factor in the overall iPhone app development cost is the size of the team developing the app. The cost will change with your choice of developer—a freelancer iPhone developer working alone on the app or a professional app development company with several resources in-house.
So, what is the ideal size for iOS app development? It will vary based on the project scope, the complexity of the application, the ETA for app completion, your budget, and the level of skills you need to develop your iOS app.
However, an iOS being developed for a small or mid-sized business will typically comprise 5-7 people. It includes a project manager, an iOS app developer, a UI/UX designer, a business analyst, scrum master, and QA engineer.
If you choose to source each person separately, the cost of each role will be billable by the hour and the rate will vary based on the role, expertise, and experience. On the other hand, outsourcing to a professional iPhone applications development company will allow you to combine all these costs into a single iPhone app development quote.
The professional app development company will give you a quote based on your app requirements and budget. However, you can be sure of one thing—the cost of iPhone applications development will be lower this way than hiring each person involved in iOS app development separately.
Dev Team Placement
The place where your development team or at least a part of it is based plays a vital role in establishing your overall cost of iOS app development. Outsourcing to a company that has some developers in south or south-east Asia and some in the U.S is more cost-effective than outsourcing to a company that has its entire development team in the U.S.
The best part is that you won’t be compromising on quality for a lower cost as some of the best talent in iOS app development is found in places like India, Vietnam and other Asian countries. Keeping location of the app development company in mind is vital in keeping your iOS app development cost within budget.
Releasing Your iOS App
Perhaps the most important step in iOS app development is the launch or release of the iOS app on the Apple app store. But not everyone has the knowledge or expertise to do that. It is the reason having a professional developer on board is crucial. They know the guidelines for publishing apps on the App store and can help you launch your app for users.
iOS App Updates and Fixes
After launching your iOS app, you need to maintain it regularly. What does it involve? It involves updating the app and fixing bugs.
Updates
Updating the app regularly is vital to stay current with new updates to the OS. It is important for ensuring the compatibility of the application with the new update and allow users to have a seamless experience when using the app.
Troubleshooting
Bugs often pop up within iOS apps and resolving them is vital to keep the app running smoothly. It can happen both during the pre-launch phase and after you launch your app. You must have a development team that can deal with bugs in the app in both.
Changes in Design
Another vital part of iOS app maintenance is improving the app design with the changes in technology and trends. However, keep in mind that making design improvements to iOS app will add to your cost of frontend iOS app development.
FAQs
There are some important questions regarding iOS app development cost that people ask frequently. Here are those questions and their answers to help you get a better estimate of your iPhone app development cost.
The total iOS app development cost depends on a number of factors. These factors include the time taken for app development, the type of app, the size of the app, app design, the size of the development team, the location of the development team, and cost of app launch and maintenance.
You may need to pay more for developing a native iOS app upfront since the development of such an app requires platform-specific coding. But the trade-off is in the form of better user-experience, performance and access to features than a cross-platform app. On the other hand, a cross-platform app is less expensive to develop but you may be compromising on user-experience, access, and performance if you choose to go this route.
If you are given an iPhone app development quote upfront by an app development company, then you can expect to pay only the amount you have been quoted. However, it is still wise to account for potential hidden costs such as the costs of ongoing maintenance and Apple app store fees to avoid any surprises.
There are a few different ways you can reduce your iOS app development cost without compromising quality. These include carefully planning and finalizing your app requirements and features, creating a cross-platform mobile application, and outsourcing your app development to a company with a development team in cost-effective regions.
Conclusion
There are a lot of factors that go into developing an iOS app and all of them contribute to the overall iOS app development cost. If you want to know how much it will cost you to create an iOS app, then you can use the information above for guidance and come up with a good estimate.
At IT verticals, we can help you budget better for your iOS app development project by considering your requirements for the app and providing the best quote for your needs and preferences.
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